During Q4 and full fiscal year financials, it touted the success of franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Rainbow Six Siege while promising updates for Shadows, Star Wars Outlaws, XDefiant and other titles at Ubisoft Forward on June 10th. Speaking of the free-to-play and totally-not-facing-troubled-development shooter, it’s out on May 21st. Life is seemingly looking up for the company, especially after so many underwhelming releases and controversies.

However, one announcement almost went under the radar amid all the hype for the next Assassin’s Creed. Ubisoft confirmed that development on The Division Heartland had stopped to “redeploy resources to bigger opportunities such as XDefiant and Rainbow Six.” Your response is probably: The Division What? If you know about the game, then it’s more likely, “It was still in development?” and you would be justified for asking.

The Division Heartland was first announced in 2021 for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5 and PC. It was touted as a free-to-play PvEvP-focused “survival-action shooter”, but instead of Washington D.C. or Manhattan, taking place in a more rural location called Silver Creek. The story concerned some “new breed of poison”, Rogue Division Agents and hostile survivors.

Players could collect materials and supplies, fighting off other players and AI enemies while completing objectives. The hook is that night could fall and add new enemies. Like an extraction shooter, it was paramount to extract or lose all of your gear upon death. Another challenge is the virus dynamically moving around the map, which necessitated filters for players to survive. Still, it could provide some nice loot if you ventured inside.

While multiple classes are nothing new for the franchise, Heartland sported six playable characters. Presumably, they would play a role in the “expanding” story, which never came to be, but alas. As you complete operations, new missions and areas on the map become available while your Base of Operations improves. Two types of Operations were available – Storm Operations, which saw 45 players competing in a PvEvP environment and Excursion Operations, which were PvE only.

It all seems simple enough, as does the reason for Ubisoft ultimately canning the project. After all, it cancelled the team-based title Project Q, the battle royale-focused Ghost Recon Frontline, Splinter Cell VR (and an alleged Splinter Cell battle royale title), and other such projects. Clearly, the tide was turning on the extraction shooter trend, and Ubisoft decided to cut its losses.

The call would likely have been easy since Heartland suffered multiple delays and developer Red Storm Entertainment was better off supporting XDefiant (cue the “Is it though?” reaction). The studio isn’t closing down like some other publishers, so all’s well that ends well, sort of?

It would seem so on the surface, but it’s still bizarre that Heartland would still be cancelled after all this time. Lest we forget, Ubisoft is the same publisher that kept Skull and Bones alive for years and years, through multiple reboots and departures at its Singapore studio, to release it to a middling critical and commercial response. Would The Division Heartland not have found more appeal, especially considering the popularity of IP?

According to those who participated in its playtests over the years, the answer is “No.”

Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson reported after the game’s cancellation that it “changed pretty significantly the last couple of years and had constant ongoing playtests, but it still didn’t resonate with players.” While more details will be forthcoming, streamer ConnorEatsPants offered his thoughts on a playtest from last year, which boiled down “what the fridge is this.” He then posted an in-game image of signs on a telephone poll stating, “All Way,” “One Way”, “No Cycling” and “Yield to Pedestrians” (on bicycles no less).

Other impressions from alleged playtesters on Reddit indicate multiple other problems, from PvP only being available at night time (which meant waiting for nearly an hour for the night to arrive) to mind-numbing tasks that involved collecting materials on a loop. You couldn’t access higher-level zones without doing these missions, and based on impressions, it seems that some of the best content, like Vulture Raids with multiple players teaming together.

One also criticized how the best elements of The Division were either dumbed down or outright absent (aside from the shooting).  I’ve always believed that the roots of The Division Heartland lay in the first game’s Survival expansion, available in November 2016. Alone in the Dark Zone and freezing, collecting weapons and clothing to survive while battling against enemies and up to 23 other players – it felt genuinely nerve-wracking to play, especially when Hunters are on the loose.

The main goal is to gather antivirals and extract them, but looting medicine to manage your own infection was also necessary. Considering Escape from Tarkov’s closed beta launched in June 2017, The Division’s Survival may have been the first proper extraction shooter.

Maybe the goal was to capitalize on this but expand it into something more, not unlike Outbreak from Rainbow Six Siege, which spun off into Rainbow Six Extraction. Perhaps Red Storm’s vision for the game was just at odds with what people liked about The Division and couldn’t fit into the extraction shooter model despite literally having a template in Survival. Maybe it couldn’t use the same premise as Survival and had to fit this whole “evolving story” into a brand new location. Perhaps it was greenlit to tide series fans over while Ubisoft Massive worked on projects like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws.

Whatever the case, it wasn’t working, and instead of dropping millions more into a project that was too big to fail, like Skull and Bones, Ubisoft opted to cancel it while the cancelling was good. It’s unlikely to be missed since Massive announced The Division 3, with Julian Gerighty, co-director of the first two games, becoming an executive producer for the brand after Outlaws launches. The fact that Heartland was cancelled before he took the position seems to indicate that it’s more of an executive decision. Otherwise, those resources may have gone into the franchise’s future, especially given Red Storm’s experience with past titles.

For now, The Division Heartland can be considered another victim of Ubisoft attempting to chase trends, greenlighting too many projects and ultimately cutting back after several failures to focus on its top franchises. The series will continue to thrive, while Heartland is likely forgotten by everyone but the developers who worked on it. It’s a shame in many ways – there’s no comfort in having a years-long project cancelled out of the blue – but the sooner Red Storm can move on to bigger and better things (preferably after XDefiant), the better.

In a statement to IGN, the publisher said, “After careful consideration, we have made the tough call to halt development on Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland, effective immediately. Our priority now is to support the talented team members at our Red Storm Entertainment studio, who will be transitioning to new projects within our company, including XDefiant and Rainbow Six.”

The title was rated in Taiwan last November and received sporadic updates through the years, including a new cinematic intro and a deep dive into the gameplay. First announced in 2021, The Division Heartland is a spin-off of the looter shooter series with two modes focused on PvEvP with dozens of players and extraction shooter mechanics. It featured some light survival mechanics, multiple playable characters and even a day/night cycle.

Unfortunately, it would face multiple delays and go without a concrete release date for years. Its cancellation isn’t the end of the world for the franchise, as Massive Entertainment is working on Tom Clancy’s The Division 3 and The Division Resurgence for mobile. Stay tuned for potential updates in the coming months.

As spotted by Twitter user @Kurakasis (via Reddit), The Division Heartland has been rated for PC and current and last gen consoles in Taiwan. Since age ratings for games tend to happen in the latter stages of development when they’re close to releasing, this could potentially suggest that the Division spinoff is approaching launch.

Following its previous delays, The Division Heartland doesn’t have a release date, and in Ubisoft’s recent quarterly fiscal report, it wasn’t mentioned by the company as one of the games it will be releasing during the course of the current fiscal year, which means it is expected to release sometime after March 31, 2024 at the earliest.

In September, Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment also confirmed that development had started on The Division 3.

Throughout the shooter, there are new characters and storylines. As players explore and gather resources during the day, Rogue players and AI attack at night. There are three classes to choose from – Weapons Expert, Survivalist and Medic – with unique properties. Overall, it should look familiar to players of the looter shooters, even if the gameplay loop is different.

Sign-ups for the next phase of closed beta testing are now available, with more news to come this Summer. Stay tuned for further updates in the coming months, potentially at the next Ubisoft Forward on June 12th.

The Division Heartland is set in the town of Silver Creek and will see players taking on other players, rogue agents, and a deadly virus, which very much lines up with previous leaks. Exact details on the game, its mode, and more are scant even in the video, but Ubisoft does say that closed tests are coming up, registrations for which are live now.

The Division Heartland doesn’t yet have a release date, but Ubisoft has previously said that it’s expected launch before April 2023. Read more on that through here.

Now, more games have been added to the list, with Ubisoft revealing that fans of The Division will also have plenty to look forward to. Taking to Twitter, the company has confirmed that the Ubisoft Forward showcase will also include updates on free-to-play PvPvE title The Division Heartland, mobile title The Division Resurgence, and upcoming content for The Division 2.

Interestingly, some brief new details and screenshots on The Division Heartland were also recently leaked via the Ubisoft Store itself. The game is expected to launch in the current fiscal year (which means before April 2023), so there’s a good chance that Ubisoft ends up announcing a final release date for it.

Agents, we'll see you at UbiForward on September 10 for updates on The Division 2, Heartland, and Resurgence!: https://t.co/zRDWwVGlKE https://t.co/OkSOdcvwU4

— Tom Clancy's The Division (@TheDivisionGame) September 5, 2022

Recently, however, the Ubisoft Store page of The Division Heartland went early earlier than it was supposed to, revealing new screenshots and brief details. The page describes the title as a “free-to-play survival-action multiplayer shooter set in small-town Middle America” that will allow you to play as one of six agents and three unique classes, each coming with unique perks and skills.

The Division Heartland will seemingly be split across two main modes, which very much falls in line with previous leaks. Storm Operations is the PvPvE mode, where each match will be a 45-player affair, tasking players with squaring off against other players, AI-controlled rogue agents called Vultures, as well as a “lethal virus”. Again, these details have been mentioned in previous leaks.

Meanwhile, the second main mode will be Excursions, which will see players “complete PvE missions, gather gear, activate alerts, and prep the battlefield in Excursion Operations.”

Interestingly, the page mentions Ubisoft Montreal as The Division Heartland’s developer. Previously, Red Storm Entertainment was officially confirmed as the studio in charge of the project.

The game’s Ubisoft Store page has since been taken down, but you can check it out below, courtesy of @Unknown1Z1 on Twitter. You can also check out the game’s new screenshots found on the page.

Ubisoft has confirmed that it’ll be sharing more news on The Division Heartland at its upcoming Ubisoft Forward event, so we’ll know more about the game soon enough.

The company has previously said that the free-to-play shooter will launch sometime before April 2023, but a specific launch date has yet to be announced.

The Division Heartland is now available in the Ubisoft Store listed as "Coming Soon" #thedivisionheartland #thedivision #comingsoon #f2p @TheDivisionGame https://t.co/pydu6vY2mn pic.twitter.com/tuBbNpcdDK

— Unknown1Z1 (@Unknown1Z1) September 4, 2022

According to the developer, it’s “still working on the feature” and will only announce a release date “when we are absolutely satisfied with the quality.” The good news is that The Division 2 will have a Year 5 thanks to the support of Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Toronto and Ubisoft Shanghai (which also worked on Year 4). No news yet on what can be expected so stay tuned in the coming months.

As for The Division on mobile platforms, announced in May 2021, there will be an update in the “very near future.” The current roadmap indicates an announcement this month so stay tuned. Red Storm Entertainment is working on The Division Heartland with closed testing ongoing. Those who wish to participate can sign up here with more information coming at a “later date.”

Expedition has been renamed to Excursion with details on it, along with Storm, being the same as Henderson’s previous report. Two additional modes – Nightfall and Hunt – have been revealed here. Nightfall is an objective-based PvE mode with the objective of gathering loot, surviving and then extracting. It boasts “added layers” for higher difficulty and there are different objectives to complete, from deploying beacons to hunting down foes.

Another interesting twist is that players must extract from a specific point on the map’s edge and can’t do so at night. At this time, AI foes called “Vultures” will come out and you must survive against them.

As for Hunt, it’s apparently a PvP-based mode without AI. This allows players to engage in some form of competitive multiplayer. Other details include cross-platform play being in active testing and an overhaul to the inventory and gear system to be more like The Division’s mainline games. Based on the footage and images seen, Henderson says the game appears to be “near completion” and is expected to release this year.

More details should be revealed soon, either at Ubisoft’s next showcase or even at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase on June 12th. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

As per a report published on Xfire by known insider Tom Henderson, Ubisoft is planning “a big games showcase event.” The showcase has apparently been in the works for a while, and was meant to air before this year’s E3, but had to be delayed due to recent world events, i.e. the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

According to Henderson, Ubisoft has as many as 20 games lined up for announcements, reveals, and updates, that are all going to happen in “the near future”- though whether they happen as part of this big showcase, whenever it takes place, or elsewhere remains to be seen.

What exactly is included in these 20 games? Henderson has mentioned several games in his report. Where new, as yet-announced games are concerned, he mentions the likes of Assassin’s Creed Rift, a new 2.5D Prince of Persia game inspired by Ori, an Immortals Fenyx Rising sequel, and The Crew 3.

Other titles include several that have previously been announced, such as Skull and Bones, which recently announced an insider program, and according to Henderson, “finally understands” what kind of games it wants to be. Another game likely to show up is Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which Henderson claims has started external QA testing and is on track for its scheduled release, which is before April 2023.

Free-to-play title The Division Heartland, which is also expected to launch before April 2023, could also be at this supposed big Ubisoft showcase, as could Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, development on which is progressing well, according to Henderson, with a 2022 launch still looking likely, contrary to recent rumours.

Henderson also brings up XDefiant, which also recently announced an insider program. The free-to-play first person shooter is allegedly “still a while away from release” and is expected launch either in late 2022 or early 2023.

These are all, of course, unconfirmed reports, so until we hear something official from Ubisoft, take this with a grain of salt, even though Henderson has a solid track record. We’ll keep an eye out for new details though, so stay tuned for more updates.